Bill Dodgers

When I read the story in yesterday’s Sunday Tel about the bill dodger who had skipped out of 422 restaurants without paying the bill, the significance did not really occur to me until my son who worked in numerous restaurants and bars during his student days pointed out that this practice has become rife since the smoking ban. Bill dodgers apparently enjoy their first or main course then order another before making a great show of slipping outside for smoke. It is more prevalent during the winter when the bent diners look totally justified in donning their coats before going out. They then take a couple of puffs, check no-one is watching and leg it. If the powers that be had been less rigid and allowed restaurants to give over a private enclosed area to smokers, as was requested by most of the catering trade, we wouldn’t see quite so many eating houses and hostelries shutting up shop. Incidentally, I wonder if there are any statistics to show whether the health benefits of the ban have been sufficient to justify the drop in business experienced by bars and restaurants.